Las Vegas Real Estate Market....

I did some Trulia searches today on Las Vegas, with a minimum of a 3+ bedroom Single Family Home, and a Max Price of $100,000....

The result was 75 pages of matches, which is 75 more pages than what I received when I did a similar search about 2 yrs ago.

Check out some of these insane deals I found:

7363 Silurian Street, Las Vegas NV 89139 - Trulia
3 br 2 ½ ba 1,211 sqft built in 2006! -- $99k

4101 Lighthouse Avenue, Las Vegas NV 89110 - Trulia
3 br 2 ba 1,286 sqft Single-Family Home built in 96, nice stucco home -- $94.9k

http://www.trulia.com/property/10670...Vegas-NV-89156
3 br 2 ½ ba 1,512 sqft Single-Family Home -- Gorgeous stucco built in 2006 -- $78k

I could go on and on....

These prices even rival the cheap houses I can buy here in Colorado Springs -- and Vegas is way more desireable of a place to live for most retirees that want to live in the Sun Belt, so I know they are screaming deals.

What do you guys think?

Cheers,

- Hakrjak

It certainly looks promising on the surface. Other than gambling, what industry is in Las Vegas to support the population? What is the housing supply vs population growth? Will the economy impact the gaming industry?

The old people / retirement industry Something like 100,000 people a month move into Las Vegas. *shrug*

- Hakrjak

hakrjak,

any idea what those places are renting for?

Out here it is worse, there are houses in Queen Creek (40 min SE of Phx airport) ... 2400 square feet, 2 years old, on the golf course, granite countertops, 1/2 acre ... 89,000. The prices are getting irresistible.

What!?!? Wow. Is that any type of area that's desirable to live in?

Sure, if you like living in bumblef*ck ... work at home, and don't mind traveling 15 miles to get groceries. It's not a bad area, just way the heck out there, relatively speaking.

Actually the statistic for Phoenix, AZ is 10,000 people/mo for the past few years and it ain't helping the market here. I don't think that Vegas has population growth higher than Phoenix.

I've seen a decent deal on a 3/2 1500sf house in Avondale asking $89,000 that rents for $1,000/mo. It will definitely cashflow!

Perhaps I am completely wrong but.... I just convinced Jesse that the right time to buy is now. Houses are sitting and banks are dealing. I hooked him and Lauren up with an agent that is a good friend of mine. They are now in contract on a house in Scottsdale for 134K.

in scottsdale?
$134k?

no way!

I guess it is time to start looking....

The #'s jump around a lot -- I know Vegas was #1 for over a year at one point. Only data I could find online was kinda old though, from 2007:

10 Fastest Growing U.S. Cities | RealEstateRama

The 10 biggest gainers:
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas: 162,250
[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Atlanta[/COLOR][/COLOR]-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga.: 151,063
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.: 132,513
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas: 120,544
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.: 86,660
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, N.C.-S.C.: 66,724
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.-Ind.-Wis.: 66,231
Austin-Round Rock, Texas: 65,880
[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Las [COLOR=blue! important]Vegas[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]-Paradise, Nev.: 59,165
San Antonio, Texas: 53,925
The 10 fast-growing metro areas
Palm Coast, Fla.: 7.2 percent
St. George, Utah: 5.1 percent
Raleigh-Cary, N.C.: 4.7 percent
[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Gainesville[/COLOR][/COLOR], Ga.: 4.5 percent
Austin-Round Rock, Texas: 4.3 percent
[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Myrtle [COLOR=blue! important]Beach[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]-Conway-N.C.-Myrtle Beach, S.C.: 4.2 percent
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, N.C.-S.C.: 4.2 percent
New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, La.: 4 percent
Grand Junction, Colo.: 3.7 percent
Clarksville, Tenn.-Ky.: 3.7 percent

Like you said though -- sometimes a booming population doesn't translate to higher housing prices. My guess would be that if an area is way overbuilt like Vegas or Phoenix, you'd see this trend like you are describing.

- Hakrjak

Wow -- would they rent? I'd like to pick one up to pay itself off by the time I'm ready to retire!

- Hakrjak

Does anybody here have a good investor-friendly Realtor in Las Vegas?

If you want a retirement home in Scottsdale, I'd suggest a small 800-1000sf condo in a nice area for $50,000-90,000 (short sale). Taxes are super cheap ($200-$300 a year), only variable expense is the HOAs.

Speaking of the Phoenix RE market, I ran into a bunch of townhouses 1000 sq ft 3/2 selling for $30k that rent for atleast $800 a month. Assoc fees and taxes are $200. So figure $600 net. Thats still a 24% cash on cash return. Funny thing is all these townhouses are investor owned mainly out of state especially CA. They bought them for $100k-$130k back in 2005-2006.

A lot of stuff here in Phoenix is selling for below replacement cost. I was speaking to a friend in the construction business and he tells me that the cheapest homes ( think KB homes) cost $80/sq ft to build. So if you can purchase a 1000 sq ft. property for under $80k , you are mostly likely purchasing it for under replacement cost. You are essentially getting the land for free.

RE: VEGAS - Anyone looked at condos on the strip ? There is one condo project, the Platinum which is right off the Strip and I have seen units selling for $200k that sold for $450k + back in early 2007. Condos around the strip have easily lost 50-70% of their value in the last 2 years.

In 2003 on a motorcycle ride through Vegas/Kingman/Laughlin we visited some people living outside of Kingman, Az (15 minutes) living in a development off route 66 called Mountain Vista Ranches with a golf coarse in the center of it. It was the only development at that time in the middle of nowhere but close to Kingman with moderate temperatures. 40 acre parcel were going for $20,000 which were actually in the development behind the new houses which were selling for around 95k - 110k for new 1400 sq ft houses.

I guess these parcels went up but may have dropped back down, just saw a Craigs list advertisement of a guy in the same area wanting to trade 40 acres for classic car stating the value was approx $100k down from over $400k. This was alot different then the $20k prices I witnessed in 2003 which I thought had possibilities especially in the Mountain Vista Ranche development.

I have not looked at the condo and loft market too closely because it's been my experience that no matter what the rest of the market does, these units still manage to gouge their buyers for a considerably higher than market price. If you could get something with a great strip view for cheap though, I'd suggest locking it up while the getting is good -- Personally I'd prefer to have some SFR's that will rent with good cashflow. I found one right by Nellis Air Force Base which I think would stay rented easily and it's a 3 bed 2.5 bath for $75k

- Hakrjak

I keep telling my friends who have the means to buy that now is the time! Everything is cheap, I'm still in amazment of all the good deals out their.

The real good ones are going to evaporate fast too, when the market starts to turn. In my area the nice $200k-$250k houses are still selling very fast. When the market starts to get better those are going to dry up, than you will be stuck paying $300k, or getting something that needs tons of work.

Why buy now, if the prices are still expected to come down more?

That is what is driving (or actually killing) this market.